Last weekend I attended a workshop that gave me a different perspective on communicating through story telling and on the stories that scientists tell among ourselves. The workshop was Building Skills for Change put on by the Institute for Change Leaders. Olivia Chow, who led the workshop, is well-known in Canada for her work in municipal and national politics. Currently, she is a professor in the School of Social Work at Ryerson University where the institute is located.

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The 2016 Upper Mississippi River Basin Conference in Moline, Illinois had a special theme of “Raising the Grade” this year, which was shaped by the Mississippi River Watershed Report Card which UMCES developed with America’s Watershed Initiative last year. The Upper Mississippi River got a “C” grade in the report card, and although the grade was the highest of all the basins, it is not good enough in the eyes of the regional stakeholders.

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The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Basin Report Card Initiative (BRCI) partnership visited Monterrey Mexico to attend the opening of the Water Center at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, and to meet with the FEMSA foundation and Water Center about the potential for report cards for the Rio Bravo, Rio Conchos, and Monterrey areas…

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In 2014 IAN visited India to help the Ministry of Environment and Forests develop the Chilika Lake Report Card in Odisha, and a Report Card for the Jamnagar Marine National Park and a Cumulative Environmental Impact Assessment for the Gulf of Kachchh in Gujarat. Report cards developed for India … This time we are back to Odisha, to Bhitarkanika National Park, in the northern part of the state.

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On October 13th, Caroline Donovan and I traveled to Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA for the Prioritization Workshop. This workshop was held as part of the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative (CMC) project that UMCES is a partner of as well as Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Izaak Walton League of America, and the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM). The workshop was hosted by ALLARM at Dickinson College.

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"Growing governance in Guanabara Bay" (Portuguese translation by João Paulo Coimbra) Em 4 de Outubro, Dave Nemazie e eu viajamos para o Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, para a terceira sessão de reuniões para o desenvolvimento do Boletim de Saúde Ambiental da Baía de Guanabara.

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On October 4th, Dave Nemazie and I traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the third set of meetings to work on the Guanabara Bay Report Card. We presented the draft report card and report card website at the INEA (State Environmental Institute) offices to Andre Correa, the Secretary of the Environment for the State of Rio. On October 5th, we met with the secretary and his cabinet as well as other groups working on Guanabara Bay Restoration.

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In September, Simon Costanzo, Caroline Donovan, and I traveled to Edmonton, Alberta for a science communication course sponsored by the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI). Participants had a diverse range of backgrounds and expertise, including researchers, planners, GIS analysts, communicators, and managers.

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Similar to a good Halloween costume, you want any map you create to convey a clear and understandable message that it doesn’t take long for the viewer to digest. Someone viewing your map should not need to take more than a minute or two to understand it’s purpose. Also similar to a Halloween costume, the big winners in map creation pay very close attention to detail. Halloween Google Maps costume. Credit:

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The Basin Report Card Initiative, a partnership between the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the World Wildlife Fund, worked closely with game developers from the Engagement Lab at Emerson College to produce a fun, interactive and thought provoking game, “Get the Grade!” . “Get the Grade” was successfully launched at three signature events across the globe:

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